New Study Reveals Some of the Causes of the 2016 Asian Heat Waves

A new set of studies analyzed the causes behind the 2016 Asian heat waves and other extreme weather events.

2016 was reportedly the as of yet hottest year on record, and the American Meteorological Society has conducted a series of new studies, released in a collection of papers, which analyzes the causes.

In all, it found human-caused climate change to be a “significant driver” in 21 of 27 extreme weather events. This includes the 2016 Asian heat waves, droughts in Africa, North American wildfires, and the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.

The 2016 Asian Heat Waves and Other Extreme Climate Events

Global warming is not the only culprit.El Niño, a cyclical event that raises temperatures throughout the planet, also occurred last year. Likewise, the new study determined that some issues, like droughts in Brazil, had causes unrelated to human activities.

Nevertheless, scientists insist that these alone cannot account for the many ecological disasters that occurred in 2016. They found that human-created climate changes caused or exacerbated many of them.

In regards to the 2016 Asian heat waves and the record highs in the Arctic, studies determined that the problems “would not have been possible” without climate change of human origin.

This is telling because researchers usually take a more conservative line. One that says climate change only increased the odds of a disaster that could have happened anyway. By saying that the problem could not have happened at all without global warming being a factor is a seemingly small, but quite significant difference.

Some of these problems, like the “flash droughts” that hit Africa throughout the year, affected humans directly. Others, like the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef or the “blob” of warm air above the Pacific Ocean, mostly harmed the environment. However, even these can still have long-term negative impacts on people as well.

As it is, scientists are somewhat encouraged by the fact that more people are more aware of human-caused climate change as a problem. Hopefully, this will contribute and help stem the tide of such issues in the future.